Jipijapa

I don't know if this counts as "fight scenes," but watching Jim Rockford getting punched almost every week was somehow very satisfying. (Why, I don't know, since he was such a likable character...)

Today's opera was Aida. I don't like this opera, in fact I don't like Ancient Egyptiany things in general, it's not a historical time period that holds much romance for me. So, this review will be brief. I watched this old production from the Met archive for one reason only - the farewell performance of the great Leontyne Price. Truly one of the greatest voices of the century. She was 58 and this is one of the most demanding roles in opera and she was just... OMG. She got a 25-minute ovation for her curtain call after this - never mind the huge ovation she got after finishing this aria. At the end of the night, her tenor co-star, who shared their final dying duet, was in tears and it was very moving. {sniffle} THIS. IS. OPERA.

The plotting has gotten a bit nonsensical during the last 3 or 4 episodes. I have faith that the writers will take a breather during the hiatus and just slow... the eff.... DOWN. I mean, it's getting to the point where you can't walk out of the room to take a pee break and you come back to find out that Cookie and/or Lucious is on the outs with one of the kids allofasudden, or there's been some other random hookup out of left field. It is... dare I say... just getting a wee bit silly. Delicious characters, great situations, and the writers spend all of 5 minutes exploring each one. This has to stop next season. Don't lose the fast-paced outrageous soap qualities, sure, but this isn't writing - it's just throwing the characters into a blender.

Actually, I think what sealed the deal was Cookie Lyon... (and a showrunner change)

I dunno about Bacon not coming cheap... it always seemed to me that The Following must have been a sweetheart deal, some sort of inside favor so he could start earning back some of that money he lost in the Madoff scandal. I don't know how else you could explain this horrible show lasting for three seasons.

The rest of the unreleased Rockford TV-movies will finally be coming out on DVD, both as a single edition, and bundled with a 34-DVD complete set of all seasons and all movies. http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Rockford-Files-MovieCollectionVol2-and-CompleteCollection/20877

"Buffy/Fringe"? Sounds like they're talking about David Fury, whose resume includes both?

It's Sunday so that means... OPERA! This week: a three and a half hour Verdi political drama. (NOOOO! Don't run away!) Yes, I could have went for the obvious Verdi such as La Traviata or Il Trovatore etc, but I decided to go for Don Carlo. This opera is actually not THAT long by long opera standards, but it is five acts long (and, some versions have a ballet attached). You can choose several different versions, in French or Italian. I prefer opera in Italian. What I like about this opera is not the love plot (it's extremely tortured) but all the shifting political intrigue. It's sort of the Hamlet of 19th century opera -- you have a mentally unbalanced prince with daddy issues, and mommy issues (well, sort of), a ghost who may or may not be real, etc. The plot, in a nutshell: Hunky young Prince Carlo of Spain thinks he's getting married to beautiful Elizabeth of France to cement the peace between France and Spain... but at the last minute, Carlo's dad, King Phillip, decides to marry Elizabeth himself. Angst ensues. Meanwhile, Carlo's best friend, Rodrigo de Posa, is all about saving Flanders from King Phillip's brutal reign. Looming over all is the Grand Inquisitor (of Spanish inquisition fame) who everyone is afraid of, even the King. There are backstabbings, secret love letters, a masked misunderstanding (of course, because this is opera), people being burned at the stake, assassination by blunderbuss, revolution... a lot happens in 3 hours. I have to confess that I probably wouldn't have chosen this particular production (again dating from the 1980's) if it didn't feature one of my opera crushes, the underappreciated baritone Giorgio Zancanaro, who was an ordinary-looking former Italian traffic cop with an extraordinary voice. He plays Rodrigo, who is probably one of the most impossibly too-good-to-be-true men in all of opera. If Rodrigo was any more noble, his teeth would sparkle. Spoiler: (Translation: This is for me the supreme day, let us say a solemn farewell; God permits us still to love one another near him, when we are in heaven. In your tear-filled eyes why this mute terror? Why are you sad? Death has charms, o my Carlos, for him who dies for you!) What a guy! This production (available in full on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ac2j2ofUNM, without English subtitles unfortunately) also has the opposite problem of the "leading lady is too old" issue.... the "old guy is too young" issue. The bass playing old King Phillip, Robert Lloyd, is actually quite a young guy under tons of makeup. If you ever want to go the whole hog and watch a long, very traditional Italian opera about intense court intrigue, I recommend this one highly.

I wonder how many drumming careers were inspired by this?

Wow, that has to be quite a come-down for her!

Great recommendation! I'm all about the funny stuff... Speaking of which, this week I decided to mix it up a bit. Running the risk of becoming Puccini'd out too soon, and also I really need to not see Placido Domingo for a while. And also, some opera produced in THIS century. And also, something besides Italian. So, today I decided to go for the Met's recent production of THE NOSE (Shostakovich) starring hunky Paulo Szot. (Disclaimer: a girl can dream, OK?) Best known for South Pacific, but also a Serious Opera Baritone. Needless to say, The Nose is never making it to Opera's Top of the Pops... and honestly, the singing isn't really the point, which is good because there ain't no catchy tunes in this one. It's absurdist! There's a lot of shrieking! (but in good voices, as far as I can tell) There's artistic screen projections up the wazoo! Seriously though, the production design, costumes, artwork, animation etc are truly mindboggling in this and I could recommend it on that alone, for the adventurous and stoned. It's about a guy (Szot) who loses his nose, which rampages all around the city by itself. Understandably, Paulo is very upset about this situation. Truly, he is a fine singer and really a terrific actor, because he actually manages to make an extended crying scene both heartrending and (intentionally) hilarious. But that's not all this opera has to offer. I like to use my Sunday morning opera sessions for coffee and croissants, to make it a real treat, and look! Well -- in the end, after much sturm und drang (or whatever the Russian avant garde equivalent phrase) -- Paulo gets his nose back. Now if my nose was missing for a week, and I got it back and it actually managed to stick, I know what I'd sniff in order to celebrate. But seriously, I thought this was just going to be "Ho hum, experimental theatah" and Russians running around saying how weird it all is. Well, there's a lot of that too, but some of this is genuinely laugh-out-loud funny stuff, and Paulo Szot is awesome. And, as mentioned - the art direction is fucking incredible... a graphic designer's wet dream, which my screenshots unfortunately do not capture. I didn't regret watching this at all. (You can check out some scenes from it here on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=szot+the+nose

Non-starring roles in low-key Australian projects, it seems... I really have zero insight into how Hollywood works, but it seems to me that Anna Torv got a plum starring role in a big American series and... it didn't become a hit. (Yes, it became our beloved Fringe, but Fringe was not a success by Hollywood standards.) The idea that anyone is going to "give her a series" on American TV is a little unrealistic. She already had one -- a series that was written for her to be front and center (at least during season 1). It didn't fly. (And to be honest, "Open" sounded crappy and I'm glad it's dead.) It's hard for actresses her age to stay in the spotlight anyway - only a tiny handful of actresses get that kind of attention and their fame tends to be relatively brief anyway. There's just too much competition. Whatever she's doing personally or professionally, I hope she is enjoying herself. Sometimes it takes a few years to reinvent oneself. Actually the person whose absence I find shocking and disappointing is Jasika Nicole, who has done... what? since Fringe. Guesting on Scandal and Welcome to Night Vale. Is Hollywood really that biased against gay actresses of color, or does she just not care? Well, her being on Scandal is still way more exposure than Anna Torv has gotten. Again, she may be having more fun knitting instead of acting. I do not presume. Meanwhile, the guys of Fringe? They've been going on to do pretty much what you'd expect them to do. John Noble has been very successful (no surprise there), Joshua Jackson somehow found himself in Dawson's Creek Adult Edition, Lance Reddick is simply EVERYWHERE, Seth Gabel has a renewed show, Kirk Acevedo has a new show that seems to be pleasing fans, Michael Cerveris did a short but very visible run on The Good Wife (and of course he has a career of his own anyway on stage). All the guys are busy. All the girls are sitting at home. Hollywood.

I think we can officially now term Anna Torv as "the reclusive Anna Torv."

Don't sweat it. The showrunners apparently realized it was a dumb plot direction as well.

See, any show that's super-popular, I automatically hate (The Walking Dead, for one) - least common denominator and all that. A show that appeals to a broad audience MUST be disappointing crap. But there's always an exception. For me, it's Empire. Yup, I never cared about hip-hop, soaps or Lee Daniels either. Maybe the key difference is that I already knew and liked Taraji Henson (Cookie), from her days on Person of Interest (and I HATED her in the beginning of that show but came to really like her). But, I'm hooked on the show. And for me to enjoy a high-rated TV show is extremely rare. I'm usually all about the shows nobody else watches...

For me? Mad Men. I especially hate the fact that less than a million people a week watch this show and yet we're all supposed to think it's some sort of modern cultural touchstone.

This week's Sunday morning opera (and vacuuming - I've added that as part of the weekly routine during Act III) was yet another 1980s Met production staged by Franco Zeffirelli... Tosca, starring Placido Domingo and Hildegard Behrens. Tosca is my least favorite Puccini opera (after Madama Butterfly) and I had three Met productions to choose from, but I figured I couldn't go wrong with Zeffirelli and this cast. Tosca the character is such an insecure basket case anyway right from the get go, that it's hard to understand why Mario would stay with her. I did have some trouble getting into Act I and initially thought Behrens was miscast. Don't mean to be sexist but while I have absolutely no problem with opera heroines being on the plump side or not beautiful, it gets harder to suspend disbelief when they are obviously in their forties or fifties. Then this guy showed up. Baron Scarpia. FEEL the lecherous evil, people. Feel it and fear it... It's not a real criticism to say that Cornell MacNeil's performance is as gloriously two-dimensional as this screenshot would imply. Nobody ever accused Scarpia of being psychologically complex... however, MacNeil also happened to be a pretty great baritone too (and an American, woot). Anyhow, he rocks in this. (And should, since he played this role since the time of Christ.) And yeah, I came around to Behrens in Act II. She did have a gorgeous voice and actually it occurred to me she was very believable playing someone with Tosca's insecurities, not being a fabulously beautiful young diva. And her "Vissi d'arte" was a showstopper where she justly got a huge ovation. Unfortunately the opera sort of dramatically slows down in Act 3 when (spoiler) Scarpia has been murdered and all that's left is for Tosca and Mario to talk it over (and die). However, we do get this great "E lucevan le stelle" from Domingo. I think the 80s was the peak of his voice and stardom. It's a pity that as of 2015, Domingo has not gracefully gotten off the stage and is now trying to pass himself off as a baritone... which he is not. (MacNeil and Behrens are both deceased now.)

The interesting thing is that the episode, in production order, actually WAS the 21st episode of Season 1. (Filmed after the season finale, episode 20) So ironically, Netflix is showing it in proper order. But of course, it makes no sense because the show's plotline changed (by the start of season 2) before they had a chance to air the episode. There IS no proper place to put this episode.

For all you opera haters out there, this series of "Perle Nere" (black pearls, opera slang for Bad Moments) is very entertaining, if a bit cringe-inducing. The videos helpfully explain what is going wrong and why. (More here and here) And do NOT miss Dragana

I love it too, though I thought it got old on Community where every episode was like that.

This week's Sunday morning opera was Don Giovanni... The original "Breaking Bad" (Leporello was the original Jesse Pinkman) and surprisingly amusing/cute, until the end, of course. Jeez, did the Don really deserve to go to hell? I mean, he killed someone in a duel, it's not like he was a cold blooded killer. Don Giovanni was played in this production by Samuel Ramey, who appeared in the aforementioned production of Mefistofele. Epic singer. Epic actor. Epic hair. Zerlina and Masetto, the country bumpkins, are adorbs. Mozart was so talented. It's hard to stay put watching something for three hours or more... But, as Bollywood movies still show, that was how long people expected to be entertained before the 20th century. Oh, and Don Giovanni was possibly the first opera to have "hit songs" on its soundtrack. Meaning, when Don Giovanni sits down for his big catered banquet (for himself), he's hired musicians to play selections from other currently popular operas of the day. So, a few minutes are devoted wholly to Don G sitting there and grooving to his favorite awesome tunes. Love it.

Oh yeah! I used to watch Classic Arts Showcase and then my local PBS station dropped it. Didn't know you could watch it online now. Thanks!

When I was a tween, I had the NBC logo taped on my bedroom wall. (All my favorite shows at the time were on NBC.) What a geek.

How about a catch-all topic for opera and/or classical and/or classical-ish singers? (Yes, Andrea Bocelli is allowed) I recently, for the hell of it, got a subscription to the Met's online archive, which you can play on an iPad also, which means you can port it via Airplay to your TV, which (along with English subtitles) makes opera worth watching. Since I generally waste two to three hours each Sunday morning sitting around in my pajamas NOT getting started on my busy day, I figured, why not fill those hours with some kulcha? So, I've started spending my Sunday mornings watching opera. The 1980s Franco Zeffirelli production of Turandot was a smashing start. Placido Domingo in his prime, and very complicated sets and costumes. I highly recommend. I was getting really into it, too, yelling back at the TV. ("Bitch! He answered the questions. You HAVE to marry him!") Anyone else watch this stuff? Also, Youtube is a glorious smorgasbord of random arias, singer vs. singer fanvids, and entire operas. THIS is fucking awesome: (Watch it to the end. Really.)

I was crushing on Joshua Jackson in Fringe pretty hard for a while there. (I was too old for the Dawson's Creek era, so he was new to me.)